分享好友 英语资讯首页 频道列表

从鱼到人:中国出土的古化石揭示了进化 - From fish to human: ancient fossil unearthed in China sheds light on evolution

双语新闻  2022-09-29 11:000
A collection of well-preserved fish fossils were unearthed in two newly discovered fossil beds from the early Silurian Period - around 439 to 436 million years ago - in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and Guizhou Province.Scientists said it could provide insights into the rise and diversification of jawed animals, including humans, rewriting the evolutionary story of "from fish to human."The research team led by Zhu Min, from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), adopted new technologies and methodologies including high-precision CT (Computed Tomography), big data analysis and hydrodynamic analogy. Using these methods, they presented the world for the first time the oldest teeth from any jawed vertebrate, and what used to be completely unknown - the body structure and anatomy of the oldest jawed vertebrate, the Global Times learned from the research team on Wednesday.Their findings provide solid evidence for scientific issues such as "how fish evolved into humans" and renew humanity's knowledge of the history of the evolution of jawed vertebrates, according to the institute.  Jawed vertebrates make up more than 99.8 percent of modern vertebrates, including humans. These jawed vertebrates, also known as gnathostomes, are thought to have originated around 450 million years ago. The emergence and rise of jawed vertebrates is believed to mark a key innovation "from fish to humans," and many vital organs and body structures of humans could date back to the early evolutionary history of jawed vertebrates.However, the scarcity of fossil evidence from this era makes it hard to reconstruct the early evolutionary history of jawed vertebrates. Previously, the earliest articulated jawed fish fossils identified to date were from around 425 million years ago. Hence, there has been a huge gap in the fossil record of the early jawed vertebrates, spanning at least 30 million years from the Late Ordovician through most of the Silurian.To fill in this gap, which has been dubbed "a persisting major gap in our paleontological record" by the famous paleontologist Alfred Romer, Zhu's team spent the past decade visiting more than 200 Silurian rock beds in China where there might be fish fossils.They eventually discovered the Chongqing Biota, which dates back 436 million years - the world's only early Silurian Lagerstätte. It preserves complete, "head-to-tail" jawed fishes, providing a peerless chance to peek into the proliferating "dawn of fishes," according to the institute.Their finds included placoderms, an extinct group of armored prehistoric fish, which were the earliest known jawed vertebrates and chondrichthyans, a group of cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays. The dominant species was a roughly 3 cm long placoderm given the name Xiushanosteus mirabilis. This fish displays a combination of features from major placoderm subgroups that sheds light on the evolution of the skulls of living jawed vertebrates. A chondrichthyan named Shenacanthus vermiformis has a body shape similar to other cartilaginous fish, but it is found to have armor plates more commonly associated with placoderms. These discoveries reveal previously unknown diversification in this period.Zhu told the Global Times on Wednesday that "the unearthing work continues to yield remarkable materials. The Chongqing Lagerstätte, like the Chengjiang and Jehol biotas, will become a world-famous paleontological heritage site and provide key evidence for how the extraordinary diversity of the jawed vertebrates we see today rose." "It's really an awesome, game-changing set of fossil discoveries. It rewrites almost everything we know about the early history of jawed animal evolution," said John Long, former president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology [2014-2016], who teaches at Flinders University, Australia.The Guizhou depository dates back some 439 million years and contains sequences of sedimentary layers from the distant Silurian Period [from around 445 to 420 million years ago]. It has produced spectacular fossil finds, including isolated teeth identified as belonging to a new species named Qianodus duplicis of primitive jawed vertebrates. Called after the ancient name of Guizhou, Qianodus possessed peculiar spiral-like dental elements carrying multiple generations of teeth that were added throughout the life of the animal. The discovery of Qianodus provides tangible proof for the existence of toothed vertebrates and shark-like dentition patterning 14 million years earlier than previously thought.Silurian vertebrate localities in Guizhou, and those elsewhere outside China, have been of great interest to paleontologists studying the origins and early diversification of vertebrates. "What puzzled the researchers was the absence of teeth or other recognizable dental elements," said Qiang Li, one of the authors of the study and a lead scientist of the early vertebrates research group at Qujing Normal University. "Now Qianodus provides us with the first tangible evidence for teeth from this critical early period of vertebrate evolution."The findings will be published in the journal Nature on Wednesday in four articles including a cover story.A collection of well-preserved fish fossils were unearthed in two newly discovered fossil beds from the early Silurian Period - around 439 to 436 million years ago - in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and Guizhou Province.Scientists said it could provide insights into the rise and diversification of jawed animals, including humans, rewriting the evolutionary story of "from fish to human."The research team led by Zhu Min, from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), adopted new technologies and methodologies including high-precision CT (Computed Tomography), big data analysis and hydrodynamic analogy. Using these methods, they presented the world for the first time the oldest teeth from any jawed vertebrate, and what used to be completely unknown - the body structure and anatomy of the oldest jawed vertebrate, the Global Times learned from the research team on Wednesday.Their findings provide solid evidence for scientific issues such as "how fish evolved into humans" and renew humanity's knowledge of the history of the evolution of jawed vertebrates, according to the institute.  Jawed vertebrates make up more than 99.8 percent of modern vertebrates, including humans. These jawed vertebrates, also known as gnathostomes, are thought to have originated around 450 million years ago. The emergence and rise of jawed vertebrates is believed to mark a key innovation "from fish to humans," and many vital organs and body structures of humans could date back to the early evolutionary history of jawed vertebrates.However, the scarcity of fossil evidence from this era makes it hard to reconstruct the early evolutionary history of jawed vertebrates. Previously, the earliest articulated jawed fish fossils identified to date were from around 425 million years ago. Hence, there has been a huge gap in the fossil record of the early jawed vertebrates, spanning at least 30 million years from the Late Ordovician through most of the Silurian.To fill in this gap, which has been dubbed "a persisting major gap in our paleontological record" by the famous paleontologist Alfred Romer, Zhu's team spent the past decade visiting more than 200 Silurian rock beds in China where there might be fish fossils.They eventually discovered the Chongqing Biota, which dates back 436 million years - the world's only early Silurian Lagerstätte. It preserves complete, "head-to-tail" jawed fishes, providing a peerless chance to peek into the proliferating "dawn of fishes," according to the institute.Their finds included placoderms, an extinct group of armored prehistoric fish, which were the earliest known jawed vertebrates and chondrichthyans, a group of cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays. The dominant species was a roughly 3 cm long placoderm given the name Xiushanosteus mirabilis. This fish displays a combination of features from major placoderm subgroups that sheds light on the evolution of the skulls of living jawed vertebrates. A chondrichthyan named Shenacanthus vermiformis has a body shape similar to other cartilaginous fish, but it is found to have armor plates more commonly associated with placoderms. These discoveries reveal previously unknown diversification in this period.Zhu told the Global Times on Wednesday that "the unearthing work continues to yield remarkable materials. The Chongqing Lagerstätte, like the Chengjiang and Jehol biotas, will become a world-famous paleontological heritage site and provide key evidence for how the extraordinary diversity of the jawed vertebrates we see today rose." "It's really an awesome, game-changing set of fossil discoveries. It rewrites almost everything we know about the early history of jawed animal evolution," said John Long, former president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology [2014-2016], who teaches at Flinders University, Australia.The Guizhou depository dates back some 439 million years and contains sequences of sedimentary layers from the distant Silurian Period [from around 445 to 420 million years ago]. It has produced spectacular fossil finds, including isolated teeth identified as belonging to a new species named Qianodus duplicis of primitive jawed vertebrates. Called after the ancient name of Guizhou, Qianodus possessed peculiar spiral-like dental elements carrying multiple generations of teeth that were added throughout the life of the animal. The discovery of Qianodus provides tangible proof for the existence of toothed vertebrates and shark-like dentition patterning 14 million years earlier than previously thought.Silurian vertebrate localities in Guizhou, and those elsewhere outside China, have been of great interest to paleontologists studying the origins and early diversification of vertebrates. "What puzzled the researchers was the absence of teeth or other recognizable dental elements," said Qiang Li, one of the authors of the study and a lead scientist of the early vertebrates research group at Qujing Normal University. "Now Qianodus provides us with the first tangible evidence for teeth from this critical early period of vertebrate evolution."The findings will be published in the journal Nature on Wednesday in four articles including a cover story.

查看更多关于【双语新闻】的文章

展开全文
相关推荐
反对 0
举报 0
评论 0
图文资讯
热门推荐
优选好物
更多推荐文章
中国在大规模人工智能模型方面取得进展 - China making headway in large-scale AI models
一家研究机构在一份罕见的公开声明中表示,中国已经开发了至少79个大型人工智能模型,每个模型的参数都超过10亿。OpenAI的人工智能聊天机器人ChatGPT在全球范围内引起了轰动。行业专家表示,美国和中国引领了此类模型的全球发展,但中国仍需缩小与美国在该领域的差距。中国已有14多个省级地区为该领域的研发做出了贡献

0评论2023-06-01674

中国空间站现在是什么样子的? - What does the China Space Station look like now?
中国空间站(CSS)由三个模块和三艘船组成。周二,神舟十六号载人飞船通过对接端口与空间站的天和核心舱从下方对接。空间站在其上方约400公里处绕地球运行。天和核心模块的另外两个对接端口分别位于前部和后部,与神舟十五号载人飞船和天舟六号货运飞船分别对接,核心舱有两个靠港

0评论2023-06-01602

北京论坛展示数百项创新成果 - Hundreds of innovations shown during Beijing forum
一位官员在本周举行的2023 ZGC论坛上表示,北京经济技术开发区(也称为北京电子城)在2022年开发了211种新产品和技术,其中许多填补了国内空白。来自北京电子城的约40家企业带来了他们的新产品和新技术,在论坛展区展示最新科技成果。区内企业现有发明专利14686项,增长27.9%

0评论2023-05-31746

新院士评选标准公布 - Criteria for new academicians released
中国科学院和中国工程院启动了新院士的申请程序,这是中国授予科学家的最高头衔。这两所科学院于周三发布了对新院士的指导方针和要求。注册中心每两年扩大一次,最终名单通常在当年年底公布。根据中国科学院的说法,今年的新成员应该来自基础科学的重点科学学科

0评论2023-05-31521

大会促进国家科幻进步 - Convention promotes nation's sci-fi progress
周一晚,2023年中国科幻大会在北京首钢园区隆重开幕,这是今年国家级国际科技峰会中关村论坛的重要组成部分。“科幻小说正以其独特的魅力越来越受到公众的关注,并吸引着科技界人士的积极参与。”中国秘书处副秘书长舒炜说

0评论2023-05-31824

脑机技术进军全国 - Brain-computer tech on march in country
中国在相关领域申请了约35%的全球专利,领先于美国和日本。Brain计算机接口技术在中国已经不仅仅是一种假设现象,在研发和应用方面取得了一些势头,尤其是在中国最新呼吁支持尖端行业的情况下,在周二结束的中关村论坛上,政府官员和行业专家表示。他们是在中关村总工程师赵志国之后发表上述评论的

0评论2023-05-31992

宇航员在天宫空间站核心舱会面 - Astronauts meet in Tiangong space station core module
神舟十六号载人飞船于周二抵达轨道,开始在天宫空间站工作。在神舟十六号飞船上,任务指挥官景海鹏少将、航天工程师朱阳柱上校和该任务的科学有效载荷专家、第一位进入太空的中国公民桂海潮教授,由20层楼高的长征二号F运载火箭发射,于上午9点31分从酒泉萨发射升空

0评论2023-05-31554

神舟十六号载人期待挑战 - Shenzhou XVI crew looks forward to challenge
周一,神舟十六号航天飞行总指挥景海鹏表示,他的机组人员已经做好准备,有信心使他们即将到来的任务取得圆满成功。“我们将是天宫空间站进入应用和开发阶段以来第一批在空间站内生活和工作的机组人员。我的机组人员包括一名航天器飞行员、一名航天工程师和一名科学有效载荷专家。这意味着我们将面临更重、更困难的任务。”

0评论2023-05-30744

宇航员在发射仪式后前往火箭 - Astronauts head to the rocket after send-off ceremony
周二凌晨,中国第11次载人航天飞行——神舟十六号的三名宇航员在位于中国西北戈壁滩的酒泉卫星发射中心的居民楼前举行了送别仪式,随后前往发射塔,此次任务的科学载荷专家桂海潮教授向指挥部徐学强将军报告

0评论2023-05-30384

大数据是高科技发展的关键 - Big data key to high-tech development
贵州一直在推动行业成为其社会和经济目标的支柱。官员和专家在2023年中国国际大数据产业博览会上表示,中国重视建立数据基础系统和更好地利用数据资源,将释放海量数据资源的价值,为数字经济的高质量发展奠定坚实基础,贵州省副省长郭锡文说,数据是

0评论2023-05-30939

中国将首次搭载神舟十六号载人航天飞机 - China to send 1st civilian into space aboard Shenzhou XVI
中国载人航天局周一表示,神舟十六号宇宙飞船将于周二上午启程,将三名中国宇航员送往天宫空间站。这将是中国第三代宇航员的首次飞行,也是中国平民首次登上太空,周一上午,在中国西北部酒泉卫星发射中心举行的新闻发布会上,他详细介绍了这次飞行。机组成员

0评论2023-05-30718

考古学家评分发现喜马拉雅龙遗骸 - Archaeologis score find Himalayasaurus remains
据中国中央电视台报道,中国科学家近日在西藏自治区发现了喜马拉雅龙化石,这是自20世纪60年代以来,他们第二次在青藏高原发现类似化石,中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所的科学家于1月抵达拉萨,开始了一轮sci

0评论2023-05-27786

中国研究人员找到了制造高度柔性、薄如纸的太阳能电池的方法 - Chinese researchers find way to manufacture highly flexible, paper-th
中国研究人员开发了一种特殊的技术来定制有纹理的晶体硅(c-Si)太阳能电池的边缘,在此基础上,太阳能电池可以像薄纸一样弯曲和折叠,中国科学院上海微系统与信息技术研究所的中国研究人员实现了这一突破。这一结果已登上5月24日版《自然》杂志的封面

0评论2023-05-27529

中国培育1050个辐照诱导突变品种,促进粮食安全 - China develops 1,050 irradiation induced-mutant varieties, boosting food
中国已开发并正式登记了46种植物中1050个辐照诱导突变品种,强调中国为和平利用核技术应对气候变化和粮食安全等挑战所做的贡献

0评论2023-05-27675

比尔·盖茨:中国可以为应对全球挑战做出独特贡献 - Bill Gates: China can make unique contributions to global challenges
微软联合创始人比尔·盖茨(Bill Gates)呼吁人类加强合作,应对全球挑战,同时强调中国将能够通过分享技术和经验教训做出独特贡献。盖茨在周五举行的2023年中关村论坛会议上通过视频链接发表演讲说,尽管人类社会已经解决了新冠肺炎疫情等问题,气候变化、地区冲突和其他挑战,他仍然对未来和贝尔保持乐观

0评论2023-05-27897

著名血液学家获首届大奖 - Renowned hematologist wins inaugural award
上海交通大学前瞻科学技术奖2023年度医疗技术奖颁奖典礼于周三在该校举行。上海交通大学医学院附属瑞金医院终身教授陈竺获得了该奖项,这是该奖项首次颁发,他同时也是中国红十字会主席和中国科学院院士,建立了一个理论

0评论2023-05-27869

新芯片改善区块链交易 - New chip improves blockchain trading
中国制造的新一代芯片将在周四举行的论坛上首次亮相,性能比上一代芯片提高了四到五倍。在2023中关村论坛开幕式上,北京区块链与边缘计算研究院(BABEC)推出了新一代256核区块链加速芯片。据BABEC称,该芯片可应用于大规模区块链算力集群,完全支持compl的运行

0评论2023-05-27821

北京呼吁发挥科技优势 - Beijing called on to leverage its sci-tech advantages
Xi表示,世界正在经历新一轮技术革命和工业

0评论2023-05-27589

中国拥有273万个5G基站;全球最大的用户群 - China has 2.73 mln 5G base stations; user base world's largest
专家表示,随着数字化建设的推进,中国5G基站的数量和用户数量都在快速增长,为中国的数字经济和高质量发展奠定了坚实的基础。工业和信息化部周三宣布,截至4月底,5G基站数量已达273万个,随着5G网络建设的稳步推进。截至2022年底,中国5G用户数量达到5.61亿

0评论2023-05-25324

中国自然科学研究排名第一 - China tops natural-science research ranking
根据自然指数,中国首次取代美国成为高质量自然科学研究的最大贡献者,在2022年顶级期刊上发表的论文份额排名第一。自然指数跟踪的82种期刊的作者隶属数据显示,去年1月至12月,中国的论文份额为19373篇,一份自然指数新闻稿称,与美国的17610个国家相比,一个国家的份额考虑了百分比

0评论2023-05-24322

更多推荐